lead¹ /lēd/

1. To show the way by going first
2. To precede
3. To guide by the hand
4. To direct
5. To guide
6. To conduct
7. To convey
8. To cart (dialect)
9. To induce
10. To live
11. To cause to live or experience
12. To adduce (Scots law)
13. To have a principal or guiding part or place in
14. To play as the first card of a round (cards)

1. To be first or among the first
2. To be guide or chief
3. To act or play (a card) first
4. To cart crops to the farmyard (often with in)
5. To afford a passage (to), or (figurative) tend towards
6. (of a newspaper, etc) to have as its main story, feature, etc (with with)

1. First place
2. Precedence
3. The amount by which one is ahead
4. Direction
5. Guidance
6. An indication
7. A precedent or example
8. A chief role
9. The player of a chief role
10. Leadership
11. Initiative
12. The act or right of playing first, or the play of whoever plays first
13. The first player of a side (curling, etc)
14. A leash
15. A watercourse leading to a mill
16. A channel through ice
17. The course of a running rope from end to end
18. A main conductor in electrical distribution
19. The distance between successive contours on the same helix of a screw thread measured parallel to the axis of the screw

1. Chief
2. Main
3. Leading

leadˈer noun

1. A person who leads or goes first
2. A chief
3. In an orchestra, the principal first violin
4. The head of a party, expedition, etc
5. The leading editorial article in a newspaper (also leading article)
6. The principal upward-growing shoot of a tree
7. A horse or dog in a front place in a team
8. A tendon
9. A short blank strip at the beginning and end of a film or tape
10. A translucent connection between a fishing-line and bait
11. A line of dots to guide the eye (printing)
12. The principal wheel in any machinery
13. An alternative name for a conductor (of an orchestra, etc) (US)

leadereneˈ noun

A female leader, esp a domineering one (orig applied to Margaret Thatcher when UK Prime Minister)

leaderetteˈ noun

A brief newspaper leader

leadˈerless adjective

leadˈership noun

1. The office of leader or conductor
2. Those acting as leaders of a particular organization or group
3. Ability to lead

leadˈing noun

1. Guidance
2. Spiritual guidance
3. Leadership
4. Carting (crops, etc)

1. Acting as leader
2. Directing or controlling
3. Principal
4. Preceding

leadˈerboard noun

A scoreboard that lists the names and scores of the current leaders in a sporting, esp golf, competition

leadˈer-caˈble noun

A cable on the sea-bottom by which ships with induction-receiving apparatus can find their way into port

Leader of the House of Commons or Leader of the House of Lords noun

A senior member of the government officially responsible for initiating the business of the House

leadˈ-in noun

1. The part of the groove on a record before the start of the recording, opp to lead-out (also lead-in groove)
2. The cable connecting the transmitter or receiver to the elevated part of an aerial
3. The introduction to, or introductory passage of, a commercial, discussion, newspaper article, piece of music, etc (also adjective)

leading aircraftman or leading aircraftsman, or leading aircraftwoman or leading aircraftswoman noun

The rank above aircraft(s)man or aircraft(s)woman

leading business noun (rare)

The acting of the principal parts or roles in plays

leading case noun (law)

A case serving as a precedent

leading counsel noun

Counsel who takes precedence over another in conducting a case

leading dog noun (Aust and NZ)

A sheepdog trained to control sheep by running ahead of them

leading edge noun

1. The edge first met
2. The foremost edge of an aerofoil or propeller blade
3. The rising amplitude portion of a pulse signal (telecommunications)
4. The forefront, esp in scientific or technical development (figurative)

leading lady or leading man noun

The principal actress or actor in a play

leading light noun

A very influential member

leading note noun (music)

The seventh tone of a major or minor scale, which leads the hearer to expect the tonic to follow

leading question noun

A question put in such a way as to suggest the desired answer

leading reins or leading strings plural noun (US)

1. Children's walking reins
2. Vexatious care or custody

leadˈ-off noun

A first move (see also lead off below)

leadˈ-out noun

1. The part of the groove on a record after the recording has finished, opp to lead-in (also lead-out groove)
2. A wire by which electric current can enter or leave an electronic instrument

lead time noun (orig US)

1. The time between the conception or design of a product, factory, alteration, etc and its production, completion, implementation, etc
2. The time taken for delivery of goods after an order has been placed

leadˈ-up noun

1. Something that introduces or causes something else
2. The period immediately prior to something happening

lead apes in hell

Imagined to be the lot of old maids in the afterlife

lead astray

1. To draw into a wrong course
2. To seduce from proper conduct

lead by the nose

To make (someone) follow submissively

lead in (Scot)

To house the harvest

lead in prayer

To lead the offering up of prayer in an assembly, uniting the prayers of others

lead off

To begin or take the start in anything

lead on

1. To persuade to go on, to draw on
2. To persuade to do something foolish
3. To trick or deceive

lead out

1. To conduct to execution or a dance
2. To bring out by preceding
3. To begin to play (cards)

leads and lags (commerce)

1. In international trade, the early payment of bills, dividends, etc to concerns abroad, and the delayed invoicing of foreign customers and delayed conversion of foreign currencies into sterling (in order to take advantage of expected changes in the rate of exchange), which have an effect on the balance of payments situation
2. Any variations in the times of completion of transactions

lead someone a dance see under dance

lead the way

To go first and guide others

lead up to

1. To bring about by degrees, to prepare for by steps or stages
2. To happen immediately before
3. To play in challenge to, or with a view to weakness in (cards)

lead² /led/

1. A heavy soft bluish-grey metallic element (symbol Pb; atomic no 82)
2. A plummet for sounding
3. A thin plate of lead separating lines of type (also leading)
4. A pan or cauldron of lead, or of a kind once made of lead
5. A strip of lead, U- or H-shaped in cross-section, used to join pieces of stained glass or the panes of a lattice window, a came
6. Blacklead graphite
7. The core of coloured material in a coloured pencil
8. A stick of graphite for a pencil
9. (in pl) sheets of lead for covering roofs, or a flat roof so covered
10. A lead weight or piece of lead shot used at the end of a fishing-line and in cartridges

Made of lead

1. To cover, weight or fit with lead
2. To join together (pieces of stained glass or a lattice window) with leads (often with up; also intransitive verb)
3. To separate the lines of with leads (printing)

leadˈed adjective

1. Fitted or weighted with or set in lead
2. Separated by leads (printing)
3. (of petrol) containing tetraethyl lead

leadˈen adjective

1. Made of lead
2. Lead-coloured
3. Inert
4. Oppressive
5. Depressing
6. Heavy
7. Dull

To make or become leaden

leadˈenly adverb

leadˈenness noun

leadˈing noun

1. Leads collectively
2. (also lead) the strip of lead separating lines of type (printing)
3. The vertical space caused by such a strip

leadˈless adjective

leadˈy adjective

Like lead

lead acetate see sugar of lead under sugar

leadˈ-armˈing noun (nautical)

Tallow, etc placed in the hollow of a sounding-lead to ascertain the nature of the bottom of the sea, river, etc

lead colic see lead poisoning below.

leadˈen-steppˈing adjective (Milton)

Moving slowly

leadˈ-free see unleaded under un-

lead glance noun

Galena

lead glass noun

Glass containing lead oxide

leadˈ-line noun

1. A sounding-line (nautical)
2. Any of the lines on a stained glass cartoon indicating where the leads will lie in the finished work

lead monoxide noun

A bright yellow solid compound used in pigments and paints

leadˈ-paintˈ noun

Paint with red lead or white lead as its base

lead pencil noun

A blacklead pencil for writing or drawing

lead poisoning noun

1. Plumbism, poisoning by the absorption of lead into the system, its commonest form being lead colic, or painter's colic
2. Death by shooting (slang)

leadsˈman noun

A seaman who heaves the lead or plummet for sounding

lead tree noun

Saturn's tree (qv)

leadˈwort same as plumbago¹

eat lead (slang)

To be shot, be killed by shooting

go down like a lead balloon (humorous)

To be conspicuously unsuccessful

red lead and white lead see under red¹and white respectively.

swing the lead (nautical and milit sl)

To invent specious excuses to evade duties

• polyseme
• polysemes
• polysemies
• polysemous
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• polysepalous
• polysiloxane
• polysiloxanes
• polysome
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• polysomy
• Polystichum
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